Quick Reads and Resources
Supporting the nuanced social, emotional, and academic needs of adolescent girls is what we aim to do best at OLP. The COVID-19 crisis presents us with a unique context in which to do that. It is in the spirit of navigating this territory together that we share these research-based resources to empower and support you and your daughter. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but we hope you will find something that helps you to address some of the most common challenges facing students right now.
Home Environment:
- How to create structure, give kids agency, and make connecting a priority
- Help Your Family Destress During Coronavirus Uncertainty
- 36 Questions that Foster Connection
- How to Help your Child Work Through Fears and Uncertainty
- Messages Adults are Sending About Values
- Support Your Child by Supporting Yourself
- Parents Obsession with Raising Happy Kids is A Big Problem
- Relationship Mapping to make sure she has strong connections during this time
- Modeling Empathy
- How school closures can strengthen your family
- How to help teens shelter in place
- Use Coronavirus as an opportunity to teach our girls valuable lessons in empathy, grit and emotional intelligence.
- Playtime, Downtime and Family Time Tips for Teens
- Making your Home A Safe Haven
- Encouraging your child to be healthy and engaged
Recommendations for Entertainment, Media Consumption, and Screen Time:
- Sexting, Consent and the Quaranteen
- If you are concerned over the amount of time your daughter is spending on a screen, check out these ways to Make Screen Time Count.
- As you’re home watching movies or enjoying some binge watching with your daughter, it may be a good time to discuss gender stereotypes in the media. Review this report, Watching Gender, for more information.
- As you scroll through Netflix, consider these Best Family Movies and Best Documentaries for Kids and Families, as recommended by Common Sense Media.
- Encourage your daughter to enjoy these Sibling Watch-Together TV shows or check out Common Sense Selections highlighting the best movies and TV shows
- Check out these recommended books on adolescent girls, screen time and media consumption.
- Suggest these ways in which your daughter can reduce the impact of screen time.
If you are struggling with information overload & conflicted about potential media bias:
- Explaining the News to Our Kids
- How to Talk to Children about Difficult News, from the American Psychological Association.
- How to Talk to Your Child about the Coronavirus.
- Approach your news consumption with intentionality.
Resources for Managing Emotions and Well-Being:
- Rethinking Stress Toolkit from Stanford SPARQtools
- When everything feels overwhelming, check out these tips on the rapidly changing news.
- De-stress together with meditation apps.
- Get the blood flowing and elevate the mood with these 25 dance games (you might need to buy a special control from Amazon).
- Gaining Perspective on Negative Events: Take a step back and analyze your feelings without ruminating.
- Show Yourself a Little Self-Compassion, and model this for your daughter as well, using these practices to bring a little mindfulness and calm to your busy day.
- Participate in a free, daily self-compassion meditation with your daughter
- Promote positive emotions and well being using these resources
- Help kids think about the good right now with this Podcast
Recommendations for Cultivating Resilience:
- Resilience Reminders from Dr. Suniya Luthar of Authentic Connections
- Science-Backed Strategies to Build Resilience: Learn about 12 different exercises you can do when facing difficulty.
- Ways to Boost Your Resilience as a Parent: Take these steps to feel less overwhelmed.
- Why Parents Need a Little Self-Compassion: Here are three practices to bring a little mindfulness and calm to your busy day.
- Emotion Coaching: Here are ways to help kids navigate challenging emotions now and in the future.
- Coronavirus Sanity Guide from Ten Percent Happier: Live weekday talks with meditation teachers, guided meditations, and lectures, many of which are specifically related to COVID-19. Health care workers also get free access to the Ten Percent Happier meditation app.
- Real-time Resilience Strategies for Coping with Coronavirus from the New Zealand Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience: Follow this list of valuable tips from experts on resilience and emergency management.
- Daily Meditation & Support Groups from Mindful Leader: Thirty-minute sessions held Monday through Friday from March 23 to May 1, including 15 minutes of silent meditation and 15 minutes of reflection and discussion.
- Helping Your Children, from InfoAboutKids.Org: Here are suggestions for talking with younger and older children about COVID-19, as well as suggestions for parents.
- Parent/Caregiver Guide to Helping Families Cope With the Coronavirus Disease 2019, from The National Child Traumatic Stress Network: This resource will help parents and caregivers think about how an infectious disease outbreak might affect their family— both physically and emotionally—and what they can do to help their family cope
Resources for Relating to Your Daughter:
- Check this out if you are wondering how to help her grieve the loss of some milestone events, like prom and graduation
- If you are home and looking for reading material, consider these recommended books on gender and adolescent girls.
- Find out what her passions are by Engaging in Learning